Notes on the AtrocitiesLike a 100-watt radio station, broadcasting to the dozens...

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

From the horse's mouth

George W. Bush, 2001:

"I set aside money in our budget over a 10 year period, the 10-year budget, for contingencies. So there is $1 trillion over 10 that's not spent, just in case something comes up. What I'm trying to do is to lay out exactly what we've got planned for the country. We increase discretionary spending by 4 percent. That's greater than the rate of inflation. That's greater than most people's paychecks have risen by.

"We pay down debt by $2 trillion. We set aside a trillion debt of contingencies -- I mean, $1 trillion of contingency money. And the debate is what to do with the rest. Because, you see, incredibly enough, as a result of your hard work and the tax burden on the American people, there is still money left over. And so what do we do?

"And by the way, before I tell you what I think we ought to do, I want you to know the assumptions in the plan are conservative assumptions. For example, over the 10 year period it is assumed our economy will grow at 3.2 percent. We can do better than that in America. We don't have to have such a pessimistic view of the productivity of the American people and the ingenuity of the entrepreneurs, and the hard work of small business people. We'll do better than that."

"And we had an emergency and a recession, which affected the revenue growth of the U.S. Treasury. I mean, the stock market went down. Some of the pie-in-the-sky projections didn't make, and the investors said, oops. The numbers weren't real. The investors said, well, it looks like the days of everything is going up may end. And so people started selling, and the markets went down. That affected the revenues coming into the U.S. Treasury. Recession -- negative growth means less revenues. And so, of course, we've got a deficit. But I know we can grow out of the deficit with wise policy."